New leadoff guy…

*Obviously, an interesting shake up at the top of the order with Drew Stubbs moving down.

*When he first checked the lineup, Lewis looked for his name further down in the order and didn’t see it.

“I looked at the lineup and thought I guess I’m not playing today,” Lewis said. “I looked at the BP groups and I was in the second group [with starters]. I had to look at the lineup again and it was a bit of a shock to me. Leading off?”

*Baker planned of using Stubbs in the leadoff spot for Game 2, but indicated he might bat Stubbs down in the order when the Interleague games move to the AL cities.

“Just relieve a little pressure for him. Freddy has been swinging the bat well,” Baker said. “When you’re scuffling in the leadoff spot, those ABs add up rather quickly – especially if you’re not walking much. It’s a temporary thing.”

*On Tuesday in his rehab assignment for Triple-A Louisville, Homer Bailey pitched six innings and allowed three runs and eight hits with one walk and three strikeouts. He threw 103 pitches, 71 strikes.

*Aroldis Chapman followed Bailey with one perfect inning and one strikeout. Of his 13 pitches, there were seven strikes.

**UPDATE — Baker said that Chapman would not be activated today. There is a good chance that Sam LeCure will be activated at some point today.

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I get it that I don’t know, but it strikes me that Chapman’s ratio of balls to strikes is still too high for a starter hoping to pitch into the sixth and seventh innings. Did the minor league stopover teach him anything control-wise?

I don’t think the purpose of the minors rehab for Chapman was to prepare him to come back to the club as a starter, at least not in the foreseeable future. Apparently, he had a physical problem that needed mending and this was the presumed source of his wildness. When he comes back it will be to the bullpen. And I doubt all the wildness will have been magically cured, The disturbing truth is that ever since his debut, he has been erratic and unpredictable, especially when brought into the middle of a messy inning and allowing inherited runners to cross the plate before his erraticism runs its course. In my mind, he has never approached effectiveness nor reliability. So far, just a sideshow of extraordinary radar busting, nothing more.

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